2005-06-07

Steven Johnson on Radio Times Right Now!

If you can, go here and listen to Marty Moss-Coane's interview with Steven Berlin Johnson, the author of Everything Bad Is Good For You, and the keeper of this newly-discovered (by me, anyway -- kudos if you've been reading it all along!) blog. If it's after 11 AM, go here and search the archives for June 7, 2005. The interview is the first one of the day.

Marty & Steven are talking about the cognitive value of today's popular culture -- the kind of thinking pop culture consumers have to do in order to understand and enjoy and learn from TV, movies, and video games.

Fascinating! And Johnson is addressing critiques of his thesis (many of these are "values"-based, which I think largely misses the point), too. Go, listen!

Postlude: Gah! I called in too late to get my question on the air. My comment, folllowed by my question, is: I work really hard (and with some success) to be an advocate for popular culture in materials & programming in public libraries, largely because I view it as the best way for us to provide the "balanced media diet" that Johnson endorses. Obviously, I approach this problem from a librarian's perspective. How would Johnson, with his background in neuroscience & sociology, approach it?

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